Maximilian MMIV

Forty-five metres running at an unhurried twelve knots. That is a displacement yacht doing what a displacement yacht is for: moving quietly, economically and comfortably, on the understanding that the passage is part of the holiday rather than an interruption of it.

Eleven guests across five cabins. The number is odd and the cabins do not divide evenly into it, which makes her a yacht for a family with a child, or for a group where one person travels alone, rather than for five couples who each expect an identical room.

Nine crew look after those eleven. It is very nearly one each, and at forty-five metres it is the figure that determines the texture of the week far more reliably than the length does: enough hands that nothing is ever queued, on any day, at any hour.

The owner's suite runs the full beam on the main deck. That position is worth more than the square metres: main deck means windows at eye level with the sea rather than portholes near the waterline, and it means walking out onto the deck instead of up a staircase to reach it.

Twelve knots is economical, and on a two-week charter the economy shows up as freedom. A yacht that is cheap to move is a yacht that moves, so the itinerary is decided by where the group wants to be rather than by what each passage costs to make.

She was delivered by Sunrise Yachts in 2009, which puts fifteen seasons behind her. On a displacement hull of this size that is a settled age: the systems are known, the crew have learned her habits, and nothing about the yacht is still being worked out.

She is available across the Mediterranean, not confined to one basin. That suits her type: a comfortable, economical yacht at twelve knots is the right tool for a long itinerary, and the passages that would be an ordeal on a faster, lighter hull are simply nights aboard on this one.

She is the sensible forty-five metres. Nothing about her is designed to startle, and everything about her is arranged so that eleven people can live aboard for a fortnight without ever finding the yacht in their way.